Sunday, September 28, 2014

Be
Careful What You Wish For is an old saying with
an ominous warning to it and Every Cloud Has
A Silver Lining is also an old saying but it has an upbeat tone to it. Both
of them apply to my story.

Be Careful What You Wish For

For years women who had had breast
cancer surgery were told not to use their arms for any strenuous activity for
fear of causing lymphedema, a build up of fluid in the arm. Don McKenzie, a
Canadian sports medicine specialist at the University of British Columbia,
opposed this idea. In 1996, he formed a dragon boat team composed of24 women with a history of breast cancer in
Vancouver, B.C. They called themselves Abreast in a Boat. And they proved that
strenuous exercise was good for their arms and for their overall health.

A few years later, they entered in the
Vancouver dragon boat festival and I saw them on the television news. I had
never heard of dragon boating before and I said to my husband. "That looks
like fun. I'd like to try dragon boating sometime."

In January of 2001, I was doing a breast
self examination and found a small lump. My annual mammogram at the Breast
Centre in Edmonton was scheduled for February but I called the centre and told
them my news. They booked me an appointment in two days. Although no one said
the C word, after the questions, the mammogram, and the ultrasound, I was pretty
sure it was cancer. Then I was told that I needed a biopsy and that it could be
scheduled for the next week. However, they added "We have an opening in
the next hour and we can do it today." I knew for sure it was cancer.

At my pre-op session a woman came in to
tell me about a group of women living with cancer or who had had breast cancer
that met every month for coffee and to offer support. I asked her if she knew
of a breast cancer survivor dragon boat team in the city. She found the contact
information for Breast Friends for me and two weeks after my surgery I joined
the team. I wasn't allowed to get in the boat until three months after my last
radiation treatment so I didn't get to actually paddle until 2002. Each summer
we attended dragon boat festivals in Alberta and British Columbia.

When I moved to Vancouver Island in the
fall of 2004, I joined Angels Abreast in Nanaimo. We went to festivals up and
down the island and in Vancouver.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

In 2006, an international breast cancer
dragon boat festival was held in Vancouver to celebrate the ten year
anniversary. Besides the Canadian teams, teams came from the United States,
Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Italy, and Asia. It was great to walk through
the paddler's village and meet fellow survivors from around the world.

In Sept. 2007, an international breast
cancer festival was held in Caloundra, Queensland, Australia, and Angels
Abreast went to that. What a wonderful time we had. The residents were
friendly, the venue was excellent, and the hosts did a great job of organizing.
The 100 teams of twenty-four paddlers, steersperson, and drummer paraded
through the streets dressed in pink, and many people yelled "Canada" or
honked their horns when they saw our Canadian flag hanging from our balconies. The
festival lasted three days and again I met many special women. After the
festival some of us toured around Queensland and New South Wales. Even with my
fear of heights, I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. From there we flew to
Fiji for a week.

A year and a half ago my team received a
notice that the next international festival was going to be held in Sarasota,
Florida, October 24, 25, 26, 2014, and we decided to attend. The other members
were going to fly down, tour around some of the sites and head home. I wanted
more than that, so my husband, Mike, and I decided to do a three month tour of
the U.S. Since I needed to be in Sarasota by October 22 to practice with the
team, we picked Sept. 18 (later changed to Sept. 23) as our leaving date and
Dec. 16 as our return date. I applied for and was given three months off work.

Mike had had back surgery on Dec. 17,
2013, but we were assured that he should be healed in time to go. However, that
has not been the case. His back hasn't healed properly and he is in constant
pain. It took a lot of thought and discussion whether he should accompany me
because he tired so quickly. But we decided he would be in pain if he stayed
home or if he came with me so he finally decided to come. We found a motorhome
and are now bringing our four cats. (my daughter suggested a title for my next
book: The Crazy Cat Lady On Tour)

Since my diagnosis I have met so many
strong, caring, fun-loving women plus I have visited some wonderful places. I
am looking forward to doing the same this year and many years to come, a silver
lining to my cloud.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Last winter I took my writing in a
new direction. I attended a two day, play writing course. By the end of it I
had adapted a short story of mine, which had won first place in a flash fiction
contest in Ascent Aspirations Magazine, into a half hour stage play. In the
spring I entered my play in the Fringe held here in Port Alberni, B.C. This
summer I produced and directed my play on stage in front of an audience. In the
process, I discovered this is not an easy thing to do.

I needed a male and a female lead actor and I asked two people who had
been in plays in our local theatre before. They agreed and I gave them each a
copy of the play. We met and had a run through with us discussing how we each
saw the characters. Their interpretation of their character's actions and
attitude were sometimes different from mine, but, other than a few places where
I felt a certain delivery was needed, I let them decide how to play the part. Through
our many rehearsals with the props, which my husband, Mike, was in charge of,
the characters evolved and took shape as we discovered better ways for them
move, react, and relate.

I also needed actors for a party scene and I approached people I knew
and/or worked with in my quest. Even though I told them that they would only be
on stage for less than five minutes, that all they had to do was listen to the
male actor beak off about how good he was, and that they had no lines, many
gave a flat no, explaining that they could never get up on stage in front of an
audience. Some agreed so I gave them the times of our next two rehearsals. Most
of them never showed up. I kept asking people: my cats' vet, the owner of a new
store in town, the person who donated some props. But I only had the same two people
show up for any of the rehearsals and it looked like Mike and I would be making
our acting debut. I was beginning to worry. Maybe I would have to drag up some
of the audience members.

On the evening of the first presentation, two of the three who had
attended rehearsals, two actors in another play and I made up the attendees of
the party. For the Saturday matinee the partiers were, one of my three regulars
along with two members of my dragon boat team, the two actors from the other
play, a theatre volunteer, and myself.

One thing I did learn was that for something like the Fringe where plays
are being presented one after the other, having a lot of props is not a good
idea. Because I was showing a story instead of telling a story, I had over
forty props, some large ones being: fridge, stove, desk, computer, sewing
machine, two chairs, table; smaller ones being: duster, broom, envelope, paper,
boxes, material, pens, wine bottle and glasses, and many more. The play after
me had only two tables, two chairs, a laundry basket and some beer bottles.
Another play I watched had some tea cups and teddy bears.

On the first evening there were going to be four separate plays, mine
being the first. That was perfect because it gave us time to set up our scene.
However, at the end, we had to get our props off stage so that the next play
could set theirs up before their showing. Our actors became stage hands and
things disappeared in a hurry. The same happened on Saturday afternoon.

The important thing I learned was that while I had written the words, I
was at the mercy of the actors to show up for the rehearsals, learn their
lines, and speak those words on stage. My female lead was off book (I did get
to know some of the lingo) quickly, but the male lead found it harder to remember
his lines. He also missed some of the rehearsals.

Putting on a stage play isn't like making a movie. You don't get to go
back and redo a scene. When asked, the way I put it is, opening night did not
go as rehearsed. To be honest, it wasn't even close. The male character kept
forgetting his lines or changing them which threw the female character off, as
well as the lighting guy and Mike who had to operate a smoke machine.

The Saturday afternoon presentation went better. He still missed many of
his lines but the audience laughed when they were supposed to and they
understood, and laughed at, the twisted ending. I was elated and hearing that
laughter made the whole process worthwhile. And I do believe I will try another
play for next year, but I will keep the props to a minimum and have the actors
tell the story instead of show the story.

While there were many mishaps and problems getting my play to the stage,
the most memorable is about our wine bottle. We needed a wine bottle for the
opening scene, so I rinsed one out and filled it with water. We used it for our
first on stage rehearsal and left it along with our other props for our full
dress rehearsal the next evening. When I went to find it for that rehearsal, it
was gone. We searched everywhere and couldn’t find it, so we used a beer bottle
in its place. We laughed and hoped that the person hadn't decided to take it as
a hostess gift to some fancy dinner. I found another wine bottle for our
opening night. At the end of the evening I discovered our first bottle by the
back door, empty. That person must have thought it was the weakest, worst
tasting wine ever made.

Friday, September 12, 2014

I took a few writing courses
and began my published, writing career (as opposed to my unpublished
writing career) with a short story titled A Hawk's Reluctant Flight, in a small magazine called WesternPeople. With that on my short resume, I had travel and historical
articles accepted by other magazines, one of which didn't pay
anything to the author. Then I took another writing course and one of the
speakers was Grant Kennedy owner of Lone Pine Publishing in Edmonton, Alberta.

At the time Alberta was divided into
tourist zones and I had been thinking about doing a book on what there was to
see and do in each zone. I sent a query letter to Lone Pine Publishing and the
senior editor responded with a phone call. We set up a time for me to go to the
city and meet with her and Grant Kennedy. I
outlined my idea and Grant said yes it was a good one but he thought that the
books should be more on the people and culture of each zone. He liked his idea
and I liked mine so we decided we couldn't work together. As I stood to leave I
said. "Well, at least as I research the zones I will see all the backroads
of Alberta." He replied. "I've always want to do a book on the
backroads of Alberta." I sat back down and that was how I began my
backroads series. Over the next ten years I travelled through and wrote two
books on Alberta, four books on British Columbia and one on the Yukon and
Alaska.

My favourite books to read have always
been mystery novels and after much thought I decided to write one.
Since one of the mantras of writing is to write
what you know I made my main character a travel writer. She was headed to
southern Alberta to do research for a magazine and was drawn into the
mystery of a skeleton found in a septic tank. When I was finished I sent it out
to a few publishers. One wrote back that they liked it but my travel background
was coming out and I had too much travel information in it. I was asked to
remove some. So I did and resent my manuscript. Again, I was asked to cut back
on the travel info. Again I did. The third time I was told that this was a
mystery and I should stick with the mystery and leave out the travel stuff. I
wrote back and said that the main character is a travel writer and is working
on an article. She is not going to drop that and concentrate on the mystery. So
needless to say we parted ways.

I sent out the manuscript again and another publisher said
they were interested in publishing it. They had one stipulation and that was
that I should add in more travel information.

I sent the second novel of what I was calling my Travelling
Detective Series to the same publisher. After about a five month wait I
received a letter that told me the publishing house had been bought out by
another one and that my manuscript and all my information had been sent to
them. I waited a fewmonths the emailed
the new publisher to find out what was happening. A couple of days later I
received an email stating that they had no record of my manuscript. My heart
sunk. But a few days after that I received an email from another editor at the
publishing house that they had found my manuscript and they wanted to
publish it.

However, in the time between that email and the publishing date for my
novel, the publishing house was sold again. The new owner was going to honour
my contracts, but in the future wasn't going to publish mysteries. I knew there
was no use sending my third manuscript to that publisher and after checking
around I sent it to Books We Love. They immediately accepted it and e-published
it. After two years of talking with my former publisher I was able to get
the rights to my first two novels of the series and now all three are published
with Books We Love Ltd. as a boxed set.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The boxed set of my Travelling Detective Series is on coundown at Amazon from today until Sept. 17. It starts at .99 and in a couple of days will be 1.99 and then go up to 2.99. To order click on the link http://amzn.com/B00KF07FQM

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About Me

I was born in New Westminster B.C. and raised in Edmonton.I have worked as a bartender, cashier, bank teller, bookkkeeper, printing press operator, meat wrapper, gold prospector, house renovator, and nursing attendant. I have had numerous travel and historical articles published and wrote seven travel books on Alberta, B.C. and the Yukon and Alaska that were published through Lone Pine Publishing in Edmonton.
One of my favourite pasttimes is reading especially mystery novels and I have now turned my writing skills to fiction. However, I have not ventured far from my writing roots. The main character in my Travelling Detective Series is a travel writer who somehow manages to get drawn into solving mysteries while she is researching her articles for travel magazines. This way, the reader is able to take the book on holidays and solve a mystery at the same time.
Illegally Dead is the first novel of the series and The Only Shadow In The House is the second. The third Whistler's Murder came out in August 2011 as an e-book through Books We Love. It can be purchased as an e-book and a paperback through Amazon.
i live on a small acreage in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island.